The Sentiment Machine is a self-regulating sound installation that examines the content of some of broadcast television’s staple products.
Using a computer program that cross-edits and remixes audio clips on-the-fly, a database of TV soundtracks is continuously poled to find ongoing topical continuity and produce a juxtaposed, hypertextual narrative of association. By restricting interplay to only those audio streams which share a pause, the editing rules mimic the rules of conversational flow. This “conversation” is then released through a small constellation of hanging speakers creating a gentle shower of emotional stimulants, a compressed model of the ethos of broadcast entertainment.
A 3 minute excerpt with no hand-editing:
“It is not pleasure which you want to make your partner feel, but impression you want to produce.”
The Marquis De Sade
The Marquis De Sade
“The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining…”
Neil Postman
Neil Postman
